Imaging bedrock topography and geological controls on ice streams flowing in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin sector of East Antarctica

The northern Wilkes Subglacial Basin (NWSB) in East Antarctica underlies the catchments of the Matusevich, Cook, Ninnis and Mertz Glaciers, which are largely marine-based and hence particularly sensitive to past and future ocean and climate warming. Here we use airborne radar, aeromagnetic and airborne gravity data to image bedrock topography, subglacial geology and deeper crustal structure and assess its influence on ice sheet dynamics in the NWSB. The previously identified Central Basins extend beneath the fast flowing Cook ice streams, indicating that potential ocean-induced changes could propagate further into the interior of the ice sheet. By analogy with the better exposed Rennick Graben in northern Victoria Land, these deep subglacial basins are interpreted here as grabens that steer fast glacial flow. With the aid of depth to source estimates and forward magnetic and gravity models, we image the 3D variability in geological basal boundary conditions, including Beacon sediments and Jurassic basaltic rocks and uplifted basement blocks within and along the flanks of these grabens. A remarkable contrast in magnetic anomaly signatures is observed over the coastal and inland segments of the Cook ice stream catchment. We model several km thick early Cambrian to late Neoproterozoic sedimentary basins in the basement of the coastal region, in contrast to a prominent Proterozoic basement high at the onset of fast glacial flow further inland. We further hypothesise that this difference affects geothermal heat flux at the base of the ice sheet, which could in turn influence basal melting and subglacial hydrology

Topology and energy transport in networks of interacting photosynthetic complexes

We address the role of topology in the energy transport process that occurs in networks of photosynthetic complexes. We take inspiration from light harvesting networks present in purple bacteria and simulate an incoherent dissipative energy transport process on more general and abstract networks, considering both regular structures (Cayley trees and hyperbranched fractals) and randomly-generated ones. We focus on the the two primary light harvesting complexes of purple bacteria, i.e., the LH1 and LH2, and we use network-theoretical centrality measures in order to select different LH1 arrangements. We show that different choices cause significant differences in the transport efficiencies, and that for regular networks centrality measures allow to identify arrangements that ensure transport efficiencies which are better than those obtained with a random disposition of the complexes. The optimal arrangements strongly depend on the dissipative nature of the dynamics and on the topological properties of the networks considered, and depending on the latter they are achieved by using global vs. local centrality measures. For randomly-generated networks a random arrangement of the complexes already provides efficient transport, and this suggests the process is strong with respect to limited amount of control in the structure design and to the disorder inherent in the construction of randomly-assembled structures. Finally, we compare the networks considered with the real biological networks and find that the latter have in general better performances, due to their higher connectivity, but the former with optimal arrangements can mimic the real networks' behaviour for a specific range of transport parameters. These results show that the use of network-theoretical concepts can be crucial for the characterization and design of efficient artificial energy transport networks.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, revised versio

Airborne radar sounding evidence for deformable sediments and outcropping bedrock beneath Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica

The geologic and morphologic records of prior ice sheet configurations show evidence of rapid, back-stepping, meltwater intensive retreats. However, the potential for such a retreat in a contemporary glacier depends on the lithology of the current ice sheet bed, which lies beneath kilometers of ice, making its physical properties difficult to constrain. We use radar sounding and marine bathymetry data to compare the bed configuration of Thwaites Glacier to the bed of paleo-Pine Island Glacier. Using observed and modeled radar scattering, we show that the tributaries and upper trunk of Thwaites Glacier are underlain by ice flow-aligned bedforms consistent with deformable sediment and that the lower trunk is grounded on a region of high bed roughness consistent with outcropping bedrock. This is the same configuration as paleo-Pine Island Glacier during its retreat across the inner continental shelf

Elastic Angular Differential Cross Sections for Quasi-One-Electron Collision Systems at Intermediate Energies: (Na⁺, Li⁺)+H and (Mg⁺, Be⁺)+He

Measurements of elastic angular differential cross sections have been carried out for four quasi-one-electron collision systems at intermediate energies. Data are presented for Na++H collisions at laboratory energies of 35.94, 51.75, 63.89, and 143.75 keV, for Li++H collisions at energies of 19.44 and 43.75 keV, for Mg++He collisions at energies of 30, 66.7, and 150 keV, and for Be++He collisions at an energy of 56.25 keV. The highest energy in each case corresponds to a projectile velocity of (1/2 a.u. Born and Eikonal calculations, in which we model the projectile ion as a heavy structureless ion of charge +1e, are also presented. Our model calculations are in fair agreement with the experimental data over the range of measured scattering angles

Electron Capture at Very Small Scattering Angles from Atomic Hydrogen by 25-125-keV Protons

Differential cross sections for electron capture in collisions between protons and hydrogen atoms have been experimentally determined for incident proton energies of 25, 60, and 125 keV in the center-of-mass scattering-angle range of 0-3 mrad. The experimental results compare more favorably with the results of both a multistate and a two-state calculation than with the results of a continuum distorted-wave-approximation calculation. There is no evidence of a Jackson-Schiff-type minimum

The thermodynamic dual structure of linear-dissipative driven systems

The spontaneous emergence of dynamical order, such as persistent currents, is sometimes argued to require principles beyond the entropy maximization of the second law of thermodynamics. I show that, for linear dissipation in the Onsager regime, current formation can be driven by exactly the Jaynesian principle of entropy maximization, suitably formulated for extended systems and nonequilibrium boundary conditions. The Legendre dual structure of equilibrium thermodynamics is also preserved, though it requires the admission of current-valued state variables, and their correct incorporation in the entropy

Single-molecule trapping and spectroscopy reveals photophysical heterogeneity of phycobilisomes quenched by Orange Carotenoid Protein

Upon photoactivation the Orange Carotenoid Protein (OCP) binds to the phycobilisome and prevents damage by thermally dissipating excess energy. Here authors use an Anti-Brownian ELectrokinetic trap to determine the photophysics of single OCP-quenched phycobilisomes and observe two distinct OCP-quenched states with either one or two OCPs bound

Isotope Effect and Momentum-Transfer Scaling in the Elastic-Scattering Differential Cross Sections for Hydrogen-Isotope Collision Systems

A projectile-dependent isotope effect was found for the elastic-scattering differential cross sections in the hydrogen-isotope collision systems. All four differential cross sections lie on a common curve if they are divided by the square of the reduced mass and plotted against momentum transfer. The experimental results are in satisfactory agreement with a simple Glauber-approximation calculation